Postcard Exchange Blog Hop

Elm Street Quilts offered to host a postcard exchange and I signed up to exchange with someone.

Here is a photo of the postcard that I made, and sent, for the exchange:

I wrote about the postcard exchange, my recipient’s word for inspiration (plunge), and my fabric postcard which was mailed to Texas.  You can find that post here.

My word for my postcard exchange partner was ‘garden’.  It isn’t very original, and definitely wide open to interpretation.

When I received my postcard, I was thrilled.  I am so ready for color and this postcard provides color and cheer!

Thank you so much to Christina from Iowa!  I couldn’t be happier and this card is now on display in my happy place…the sewing studio!

If you would like to see more fabric postcards from participants of the exchange, then click on the following links:

Denise @ DottieDoodle
Isis @ Creation d’Isis
Karen @ Run Sew Fun
Lynette @ What A Hoot Quilts
Laura @ LC’s Cottage
Lisa @ Sunlight in Winter Quilts
Marsha @ Quilter in Motion
Michelle @ Creative Blonde
Paige @ Quilted Blooms
Patty @ Elm Street Quilts
Sandra @ mmm! quilts
Susan @ California Fiber and Music
Valerie @ Val’s Quilting Studio

There are lots of fabric postcard tutorials online. Here’s a couple to get you started:

NeedledMom
The Spruce

If you are on Pinterest, then simply search ‘fabric postcard tutorials’…lots comes up!  

Creating fabric postcards can be addictive!  Have fun!

I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for a postcard parade!  Check us out!

Postcard Exchange Feb./March 2018

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” -Alan Watts…The Wisdom of Insecurity

 

“Be not the slave of your own past – plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Elm Street Quilts offered to host a postcard exchange and I signed up to exchange with someone.

I enjoy making fabric postcards, but the last time that I made one was in 2012.  You can see that postcard here.

For this exchange, we were supposed to choose one word for the maker to use as inspiration.

My recipient chose the word ‘plunge’.  Here is what I learned about the meaning of plunge:

Plunge
• to thrust into water or other fluid substance
• immerse in a fluid
• to drive into flesh, mire or earth
• to thrust or drive into any state in which the thing is considered as enveloped or surrounded, enclosed, overwhelmed (difficulties, distress, war)
• baptize by immersion
• to pitch
• to fall

Immersion
• the act of putting into a fluid below the surface; plunge till covered
• the state of sinking into a fluid; being considered overwhelmed or deeply engaged
• the act of entering into the light of the sun, as a star, so as to be enveloped and invisible to the eye
• the state of being enveloped
• the entrance of the moon into the shadow of the earth, at the commencement of an eclipse; the state of being enveloped in the shadow

Some ideas that I considered (Very briefly on a couple of these!):

• toilet plunger
• plunging neckline
• dagger plunged into a chest
• cocoon
• eclipse

I wanted to depict something positive, something that indicated a leap of faith; some risk taking.

So I am showing a person joyfully plunging from a cliff into a sea. 

I am not showing the back of the postcard because I have written the recipient’s name and address on it.

I have also written a quote for her:

Plunge boldly into the thick of life. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I hope she likes it!

To see more photos from the exchange, check out the Instagram tag #esqpostcardswap.  I am not on Instagram, but I know that many of you are.  Enjoy!

Yoda Finish

It has been a very hot, dry and windy summer…ripe for wildfires…and indeed, we have them raging in my home state of Washington, as well as Oregon and California.  So when I am home from the day job, I am attempting to keep some green space around my home.

I have great water, but it comes from a gravity fed spring, so I am limited to how long, and how much, I can water the gardens at any one time.  I am losing the battle for the green space.  Fortunately, there are no wildfires close by. 

I am blessed.

We did get a brief respite from a cool down and storm.  Unfortunately, this storm was particularly vicious.  There are downed trees everywhere, and it left thousands of people without power, water, and, in many cases, without a place to live since the trees smashed their homes.  My father is one of those without power and water, but he is coping well.

Again, I am blessed.

What angers me is that these people who have lost so much because of natural disasters are now being preyed upon by looters.  I look forward to the Lord’s justice in dealing with these heartless and selfish crooks!

I bet you don’t remember this:

I made a stencil of words and painted it:

Seemed fitting for kittens:

Then the little project sat. 

And sat.

I have finally sandwiched it and finished it.

I was going to use free motion quilting and outline the kittens’ bodies…sort of a ghost effect.  Once I sandwiched it, and quilted it, however, I didn’t like it.

My next thought was to paint the bodies.  I should’ve stopped thinking and followed through on that idea.

Instead, I decided to thread paint the bodies.  Now I know about stabilizers (I’ve thread painted before), but this was already sandwiched and quilted.  And, yes, I know that I still could have used a water-soluble stabilizer.  If I had any.  I didn’t.  And if I wanted to wait to finish.  I didn’t.

Ha!  My little quilt (about 8″ x 11″) shrunk up like a roasted marshmallow!  I had to steam the snot out of it to get it to lie flat again!

I’m done.  Maybe a granddaughter will want this one.  Or I will be an anonymous giver to a quilting buddy.  Heh, heh!

On to the next UFO.

Yoda

I thought a simple little UFO would be appropriate for my next project.

Many moons ago, I took photos of a sweet little kitten named Yoda. 

I played with effects on one of those photos in photoshop and created a design to print on fabric.

I don’t know how long ago I did this…long enough that when I touched the gold yarn, it disintegrated (Perhaps bad quality?).   I didn’t save the file on my pc (Neglect or a computer crash?) so I have no reference and no way to print more of this fabric.

By the time you read this post, I will have free motion stitched the fused applique.  I’m not sure what else I’ll do yet.

I have more long days coming with the day job, so I don’t know when I’ll be back. 

Meantime, ya’ll have some fun creating, whether you love to create in the kitchen, the woodshop, with Legos, knitting, scrapbooking, or….  Just find the time for the precious creative muse!

Perhaps Moses…Finished

What began as a class lesson on perspective has finished as Moses and Pharaoh’s Daughter.  Most of us are familiar with the biblical story of Moses’ birth from Exodus Chapter 2: 1-10.

Had I known that the background was to become the setting for Moses, I would’ve chosen shades and tints of alabaster to create it (seems more Egyptian to me).  But I had no end result in mind, and the background sat around for longer than I care to admit.

No matter that the details are not accurate.  I’m an artist, right?  I can take certain liberties.  What’s important is that when one looks at this quilt, one can see the story.

So here it is:

A few close-ups:

Before and after:

For Part 1, click here.

For Part 2, click here.

For Part 3, click here.

For Part 4, click here.

For Part 5, click here.